Leeds United director confident of extending loan deal with Brighton's Ben White

White's loan deal is due to expire in June but Leeds are determined to keep the impressive young defender for their remaining fixtures - if or when the Championship campaign resumes.

“I don’t think it’s as complex as people say," Orta said, speaking in Spain earlier this week. "It’s only goodwill and relationships.

“We are talking about solidarity all the time. We can practise solidarity. It’s more difficult to practise than talk about.

“At the end of the day, whoever we are talking about, it’s extending a contract six weeks or seven weeks.

“With loan players, it’s the same. A loan player is a more easy situation because he comes back to his loan team to collect the salary.

“A lot of lawyers say the concept of the season not ending can be the proper contract and can go beyond the original end date.

“If the season is not ending, the contract is not ending. It’s one of the things people are talking about.

“In this moment, we cannot fill FIFA with a lot of cases.

“We need to have good relations with the clubs. I have five loan players and I am doing this.

“For Lorient, for Man City, for Brighton, for Wolves, they continue the loan of the players with me.

“It’s really beneficial. These players are taking minutes, in my case they are five [starting] line-up players. That is really important too and decisive.”

White has been a virtual ever-present for Leeds this season and his fine displays have impressed Premier League giants Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City.

White is contracted with Brighton until June 2022. Last week their technical director Dan Ashworth said, "We’ve been delighted with his progress and Leeds have done a fantastic job with him.

"He’s done really well, and Leeds have done great in helping him develop – he’s played a lot of matches. We’re not surprised at how well he’s done, and we rate him highly.

He signed a new deal last summer before he went out [on loan] so when he comes back, we’ll see where we are, but he is part of our plans and a talent we’ll be looking to keep for a number of years at the club," said Ashworth.

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